


Introductory Gastronomy

by miniaturedragonfly



Series: Advanced Culinary Arts [1]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode: s05e05 Geothermal Escapism, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27522277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miniaturedragonfly/pseuds/miniaturedragonfly
Summary: Shirley's just excited to have someone new (someone not-Pierce) sitting next to her at the study table.  In an effort to make friends with Hickey, she brings cookies for the study group one day.
Relationships: Shirley Bennett & Buzz Hickey
Series: Advanced Culinary Arts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2011546
Kudos: 7





	Introductory Gastronomy

It’s not that Shirley was _happy_ when Pierce died. That would be inappropriate, and besides, Pierce was family and they’d all been through a lot together. After they all met Cornelius, Shirley had even started to feel a little bad for Pierce. But she hadn’t been too broken up when she realized he wouldn’t be sitting next to her at the study table anymore.

It wasn’t so much the things he _said_ , though a good proportion of the things he said managed to be racist or sexist or just plain _mean_. Shirley had gotten pretty good at avoiding conversations with Pierce over the years, and Annie tended to keep an eye out to engage Shirley in a new conversation if anything went askew while she tried talking to Pierce. The problem was that it wasn’t _fair_.

Everyone else at the table could choose between two neighbors to talk to while they studied or just spent time together at the table. Jeff’s seat was closer to Britta’s than to Annie’s— _and a good thing, too, or Lord only knows what those googly eyes might lead to_ —but since the seat next to Jeff’s was almost always empty, he could still talk to Annie easily enough. Troy had the same problem Shirley did, of having Pierce on one side, but Troy had Abed on the other side and would probably have been content to have a wall between himself and the rest of the table as long as Abed was next to him.

So Shirley got to know Annie pretty damn well. Between avoiding conversations with Pierce, actually doing homework, and talking to Annie because she enjoyed Annie’s company, Shirley figured that she probably spent the majority of her time at the study table talking to Annie. And that was nice, at first, and it was _still_ nice, of course, but after four years of Annie, Shirley was starting to find herself learning the same bits of information over and over, telling Annie the same stories she’d told her years ago.

Then Pierce died. For a week or so, it was almost as if nothing had changed—Pierce had been kind of absent by the end of their senior year, anyway. So when criminology professor Buzz Hickey trudged into the room and sat himself down in Pierce’s empty chair the day after Annie’s “slightly higher grades” riot, Shirley smiled to herself. Sure, he looked grumpy, even a little angry, but it was nothing a brownie or two wouldn’t fix. Shirley introduced herself politely, then turned her attention to Annie. No need to try too hard right away, no need to risk pushing her new friend away before they’d gotten a chance to get to know each other.

Then Troy left, and Shirley briefly considered sitting closer to Abed, to give him someone to talk to. But that would have meant moving into one of the chairs on the side of the table that faced Jeff, and Hickey had already claimed Pierce’s chair. Sitting in Troy’s chair felt out of the question. Besides, Abed seemed like he was doing okay—or at least, he seemed to be handling it. He always had some project in front of him, either on his laptop or on paper, and the way Annie said “he’s been keeping busy” when Shirley asked how Abed was coping made her feel like it wouldn’t be a good idea to distract him.

So Shirley gave everyone a few days to begin to recover from Troy’s departure, then resolved to do her part to bring Hickey into their little family—or at least make a new friend. That morning, as soon as Shirley sat down, she produced a plastic container full of chocolate chip cookies from her bottomless purse. She pulled off the lid and offered the container to Hickey.

“What’s this?” he grumbled.

“Oh, sometimes I bring treats for the group. I like to bake,” Shirley explained, carefully nonchalant.

“Are they any good?” Hickey asked bluntly. Shirley was a little taken aback by the question, but she remembered her manners.

“Well, _I_ think so, but why don’t you try one for yourself?”

Hickey shifted his gaze to Annie, who was pretending not to listen to their conversation. “Hey, Edison. Are your friend’s cookies any good?”

Annie took a cookie from the box and fixed Hickey with a stern look. “Shirley’s baking is excellent, you should try one.” Annie took a bite of her cookie and smiled at Shirley, which made Shirley feel proud even though she already knew how much Annie appreciated it when anybody gave her food. “And it’s _polite_ to learn people’s names, and use them,” she added, glancing at Shirley.

“Wait, did Shirley bring cookies?” Jeff asked suddenly from his seat near the door. Shirley beamed and slid the plastic container across the table for Jeff to catch. He took a cookie, smiled at it, and took a small bite. He offered the container to Britta, who looked over to Shirley and raised an eyebrow. Shirley shook her head and mouthed “sorry, Britta”. Britta’s face fell, and she passed the cookies to Abed. Abed took two cookies, blinked, put one back. He stuffed half the cookie into his mouth and slipped his headphones over his head.

“Now hold on, _he_ eats your cookies?” Hickey demanded, pointing at Jeff.

“Listen, if I’m going to put carbs _and_ sugar in my body, it had better be at _least_ as delicious as Shirley’s baking,” Jeff declared.

“All right, give me one,” Hickey said finally. Shirley smiled to herself as Abed handed the container to Hickey—he seemed to have heard their exchange perfectly despite the headphones. Hickey selected a cookie and passed the container back to Shirley, and she picked one up for herself before replacing the lid and sliding the container back into her purse.

She watched as Hickey took a bite of the cookie. He raised his eyebrows and nodded as he chewed.

“Do you like it?” Shirley inquired sweetly.

Hickey huffed. “Not bad,” he conceded. “Not bad, Ms. Bennett.”

**Author's Note:**

> I adore the Shirley-Hickey dynamic (especially in 5x13, Basic Sandwich) and wish we'd had time to see more of it. So I wrote this as the first installment in a series exploring their relationship throughout the season, then realized I could do another whole series about Shirley bringing baked goods for each member of the Save Greendale Committee, and now I'm writing both. This is the first work in both series; they both have more to come.


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